Investing in Entrepreneurial Universities in Caucasus and Central Asia

October 15, 2020

On 17th -18th of March 2016 within the frame of Erasmus+ Project on Investing in Entrepreneurial Universities in Caucasus and Central Asia (EUCAINVEST- 2015-2018) funded by the European Union, the Kyrgyz Economic University hosted a kick-off meeting.

In conditions of very low youth labor force participation and unappealing perspectives in employment upon graduation, universities lack capacity to equip their students with entrepreneurial skills. Lack of internships and other professional training opportunities during studies, among others, lead to discouragement, lack of motivation and inactivity among the youth.
Large group of GE and KG youth is losing their potential to put their creative ideas into product and create self-employment. Therefore, there is a need for more formal and non-formal education activities aimed at strengthening entrepreneurial capacity of students and graduates. 
The general objective of EUCA-INVEST is to enhance entrepreneurial culture and creativity within HE in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan and to strengthen the role of HEIs as an active stakeholder that contributes to the socio-economic development of society by fostering cooperation enterprise-university at both academic and industry level as well as between the EU and the beneficiary countries. 
The project will achieve this by developing a creative and supportive environment at institutional level through the establishment of CreaLABs and a network of them in GE and KG. These networks will serve as platforms to encourage and foster students’ entrepreneurial ideas and at the same time support the bridge that links enterprise and universities for the benefit of innovation and socio-economic development in beneficiary countries.

At the kick-off meeting all the partners discussed initial steps of the project as how to develop curricula for the trainings of teachers, managers and students as well as how to settle a lab for students and how to turn ideas to real business. An international conference where first results will be presented will take place in Tbilisi in September 2016.‪#‎EUCAINVEST2016 ‪#‎KyrgyzstanBishkek